Slowing Down to See What’s Really There
How a trip to Mexico mad space to think & time to listen
3 min read
I took some PTO last week — first real stretch of time off this year. We went down to Mexico and I did my best to step away from the usual chaos of running by own business.
No Slack. No screens (well, less of them). Just a couple of beach chairs, a running tally of iguana sightings, and a lot of quiet moments in between.
Somewhere between the saltwater and the slow mornings, I realized how loud my brain had gotten.
Not in a burnout kind of way. More in that subtle, humming tension — where the ideas are piling up faster than I can process them, and the urgency to “figure it all out” keeps trying to outpace the part of me that knows better.
I’ve been chewing on a lot lately. What it means to build with intention.
What’s worth running toward and what’s just noise. Where to take things next — with the GoodFolks, with my own creative rhythm, with the ways I want to spend my days.
There’s change coming. Good change, I think. I’m not fully ready to talk about it yet, but it’s been working its way to the surface for a while now. Mexico just gave it room to stretch its legs.
One thing I’ve been especially tuned into lately is the role of AI in our work. It’s here — clearly. But the way most people are using it? Feels like we’re only scratching the surface.
Too much flash, not enough foundation.
We don’t need more gimmicks. We need better questions. Better instincts. Tools that make room for clarity, not chaos. I’m excited about what AI can do — really excited — but not in the hypey, jump-on-the-bandwagon way. More in the “let’s take this seriously and use it wisely” kind of way.
That same thinking applies to everything else I’m building too.
The work I want to do next needs room to breathe. It needs more quiet thinking and fewer rushed meetings. It needs to move fast, yes — but with a clear sense of why.
So this trip, this pause, this moment of stepping out of the blur — it wasn’t about escaping. It was about resetting my pace. I want to keep going. I just don’t want to speed past the point. I didn’t walk away from this trip with a five-year plan. No dramatic clarity. No fancy breakthrough. Just a better grip on the questions I need to keep asking. And a little more confidence in the slower, steadier way of getting there.
I’m excited for what’s ahead. I’m just not in a rush to get there.